Friday, September 26, 2014

1)A
good step to take for a person who runs businesses would be to join online
communities or discussion groups that center around your area of interest in
the business field. Becoming part of a business
forum on the web will allow you to communicate with other business owners.
You can get such people to help you out with your business and vice versa.
However, as social loafing (decrease in individual effort as group size
increases) becomes a threat, you can reduce anonymity and create some
individual accountability.

2) You
can raise the productive level of your business by getting your family members
to pitch in the work. Since they have complementary skills and a common goal,
they will end up with much more output then hiring people you don’t know. For
example, you can get your daughter with an artistic flair to design advertising
banners for you, and your son with high knowledge in computer software’s to
create balance sheets on Excel files.

3) Set
a consistent schedule for work. Write down the times that you plan to work, and
this will help keep you from burning out. It is very important to have feedback
about the work performed at the end of every day. This feedback can either come
from you, from your coworkers and staff, or from the customers. It allows you
at access your mistakes and then removes such flaws accordingly very quickly so
damage is minimized.

4) You must work on
creating skills such as impression
management and persuasion and social influence in order to successfully and
profitably run your business. Impression management is tactics designed to
induce liking a favorable first impression by others. Social influence is the ability
to change others’ attitudes and/or their behavior in desired direction. These
skills will lead to a high level of charisma, something that inevitably leads
to attracting more customers. A sales
force team must be equipped with these kinds of skills.

5) Playing a devil’s advocate is a good idea if you are confused between
multiple decisions and scenarios regarding your business. This involves asking
yourself to counter the proposition given in order to determine the validity of
it. For example, if you want to expand your business, then playing the role of
a devil’s advocate will allow you to assess whether you have enough financing,
or market demand, and whether you should ultimately go ahead with the plan.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

A great marketing tip is to come up with a brand logo or symbol that goes with
your brand name. This is something visual that you’re giving to your customers
to remember, and hence will be even more easy to retain than a brand name. Remember, your brand name is the identity of
your products, so if you have a name that people recognize, your customers will
find relating to you an easier matter. Take Nike, for example. The logo for
this brand is a tick mark. This technique will definitely increase your salesin the long run.

It
can prove extremely beneficial for you to take a short marketing course, so you
can get to know how to advertise your product properly, for example. There are
different periods for such courses, and they can be over a week long, or can
last for even six months. Not only will they equip with the skills to market
your product, you will also learn the technical jargon involved in your home
business marketing. These can be workshops conducted by the universities in your city, or programs set up by organizations and certified individuals that provide such services. But if these courses are proving to be too heavy for your pocket, don’t despair. Most of these courses have supplements in the form of online presentations or workbooks and case studies that you can attain just by searching for them on the web.Apart
from marketing courses, there are also other courses that you can take up. One
of such is on business management, and you can look for specific ones that have
a home business slant so that it can suit your needs. Not only will it provide
you with invaluable skills and information on how to manage your business
effectively, such courses also provide you with certifications that deem your
business to be more ‘legitimate.’

Often, in the initial stages of your business, you need to devote a lot of time to it, and as a result, you family life tends to suffer. But believe it or not, giving your family an adequate amount of time will actually be very beneficial for your home business. Learning to strike a balance between your family and your home business is very important because it will give you the mental peace and satisfaction that you are not neglecting any of your home duties as a parent, for example, or a husband.

Friday, September 19, 2014

Maintaining a website for your small business is
an essential step to success because it allows customers to order online order
online. Most small business owners make the common mistake of choosing to
sell their products only from a particular physical location such as a home
store, but what they don’t realize is that this is can cause great
inconvenience to customers. Websites can be a good way to reach a broader
audience and generate a higher number of sales.

Implement A Good Delivery System:

A good delivery system that allows products to
be delivered to the doorsteps of customers will immediately lead to an increase
in sales. Many people find it difficult to arrange for visiting your store and
then taking the products home. For a rapidly expanding business, it would be a
good idea to hire sales
force team or even a delivery man who can deliver goods within the city or
near your vicinity. This will jump up the number of your sales really quickly.

Create Backups Of Your Documents:

Inexpensive, movable storage is one way to
protect your significant business documents. Sacrificing some of your time by
backing up documents and receipts will have a lot of potential of decreasing
chances of losing the originals. This will also ultimately result in your peace
of mind. For example, you should try buying USBs that have storage capacities
like 4 GB or 8 GB always on hand. You can even get a different colored one for
each type of work files you want to save so as to be able to access them
quickly when you need to.

Go Through Legalities:

One of the most crucial aspects of the ground
work you need to prior to setting up your home was to go through the legal
stuff like legislation and rules involving your specific area of
interest. As home business laws are more or less different from one state
to the other, it is a good idea to hire or consult a lawyer who specializes in
business matters before you start up a business of your own. You can hire such
a lawyer on an hourly basis instead of fixed time periods like months or weeks
to help cut down on expenses.

Create A Catchy Brand Name:

One of the most successful of marketing tips is
to go for a brand name that is loud and clear, as well as catchy. It has to be
something that can easily be retained by the customer. You should come up with
a brand name that is both memorable and significant. Take Victoria’s Secret,
for example. It is a catchy name that gives a subtle hint of the products it
offers, and thus, almost everyone in a regular household is familiar with
it.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Let’s face it. You
simply can’t start a home business if you don’t have the money to start it up.
Sure, there are certain businesses that can be launched without the need of
capital, but that pretty much restricts your options. Thankfully, it is fairly easy to fund a home
business.

We have chalked out 5 major ways in which you can fund your home
business, whether it’s part time or full time, large scale or small scale.
Some of these amazing options are as follows:

Crowdfunding:

Crowdfunding utilizes one of the best technological
advancements man could ever have made –the internet. What you do is that you simply list your home
business ideas on sites like IndieGoGo, GoFundMe, GiveABuck etc and ask people
to invest in it. Here are some of the reasons why this is such a good idea:

It gives you access to potentially millions of
users because of the wide scope of the internet.

You can choose which website you want to put
your idea onto. You can simply search on a web engine and many options will
come up.

You don’t have to pay back your investors in
terms of money or equity. You can pay them back with bonuses or perks. Say for
example, your idea of a home business is to make and sell
beauty products.

You could pay back your investors by giving them the
contact details of your clients. So if those investors were interesting in the
same business, they would have access to clients too, and that would be a big
bonus to them.

Bank loans:

Almost everyone would agree that this is a conventional or
traditional way to fund a home business. But hey, it’s tried and tested, and
it’s fool proof. You can loan a principal amount of money against a certain
percentage of interest that you would be liable to day according to the terms
and conditions of the contract. It could be monthly, quarterly, semiannually,
or even yearly. You have to pay back the principal amount of money at the end
of the term. One thing that you should
make sure is to go to a bank which provides you with the set of terms and
conditions that you like.

Business plan
competitions:

Business plan competitions are all the rage right now
because they allow investors, such as people in the corporate social
responsibility sector of big companies, to meet people who have great and
practical business venture ideas. These
investors often come to universities and hold competitions, asking students to
pitch in their best ideas, demonstrate how they can be workable, and then
reward the winners by giving them the means to making their ideas materialize.

Business incubators:

These are public-private partnerships, which reward you by
offering perks like clerical assistance, work space etc.

Corporate venturing:

This means you get incubated by a larger company. So if your
idea is worth it, you will easily be able to find someone who is willing to
fund a home business.

Friday, September 12, 2014

Door-to-door
selling is an important direct marketing tool in which a
salesperson walks from the door of one house to the door of another in an
attempt to sell, on the spot, a product or service to the general public. The
target group is willing to switch to that product or service after research. It
is used in the comfort of the potential consumer’s environment where he or she
is in control.

Why is it used?

In recent times, this form of direct
selling has become more and more important because it is personalized, and
this aids in breaking through the clutter of competing brands. A salesperson in
the flesh is more likely to be able to build a relationship with the customer
than someone over the phone.

Who is the target group of door-to-door selling?

This largely depends on the product or service. For example,
if this technique is being used to sell a home security system, then people who
are home owners and are very security conscious should be focused on. Similarly,
for beauty products, individuals who are self-conscious and want to appear
better looking among their social circle should be segmented as the target
group.

How is it used?

After making a list of which area to go and how many houses
to visit, the sales
representative, with the actual products with him/her knocks on doors, and
attempts to sell the merchandise. In case of intangible services, the sales
force team would encourage the filling of membership forms.

It is often used by companies who have a much selected
consumer base. Research has proven that if is effective in selling brands that
are not mass marketed, since they need loyal, long time consumers to survive
and contribute to the life time equity.

Tips for effective door-to-door
selling:

Companies enforcing this method of marketing should make
sure that their sales
force team is competent, and is able to answer all the questions that the
consumer is asking. They should also be convincing enough for the customer to
make an actual purchase.

The sales force team should always hand out brochures and
leaflets at the end of their visit, so that the potential customers can refer
to this material, should they wish to make a purchase in the future. Such
material also helps in brand recall.

Door-to-door selling can be an expensive marketing tool,
since it not only utilized human resources, effort and time, but also costs
such as that of reaching the customer. Therefore, it should be made sure prior
to contacting the customer, that he or she is not distracted by any other
activities and has the sale rep’s full attention.